The terror gang in the White House

Not fighting for civilisation

GEORGE W Bush claims he is fighting terrorism in the interests of democracy and freedom. But behind George W Bush stands his father, George Bush Sr-one of the worst terrorists ever.

He worked for the CIA when the US was fighting its war against the Vietnam in the 1960s. Some two million civilians died in that war. Bush Sr went on to head the CIA when it was responsible for a brutal reign of terror and mass murder.

In 1973 the CIA orchestrated the coup in Chile against the democratically elected regime of president Salvador Allende, which saw thousands of trade unionists and others killed or 'disappeared'. In the year after that coup the CIA also helped coordinate Operation Condor, which involved the assassination and murder of trade unionists and people who opposed repressive regimes in Latin America.

Operation Condor included trade unionists in Argentina and Chile being loaded into planes and dropped into the ocean. Bush Sr went on to crown his career as US president in 1991 when he led the slaughter of over 150,000 Iraqi civilians and army conscripts during the Gulf War. This murderer is now guiding his son to follow in his bloody footsteps.

Gallery of murderers

GEORGE BUSH'S administration is packed full of terrorists and war criminals. They include:

DICK CHENEY Bush's vice-president was George Bush Sr's defence secretary and zealously pushed for the Gulf War against Iraq in 1991. Cheney boasted about the gruesome killing of Iraqis in briefings to the US Congress. He is a former member of the board of arms giant TRW. His wife, Lynn Cheney, recently left the board of arms company Lockheed Martin.

COLIN POWELL Bush's Secretary of State is described as a 'dove' and a 'peacemaker' in much of the press. He is in fact a war criminal.

Powell helped to organise the cover-up of the notorious 1969 My Lai massacre, when US troops massacred 400 Vietnamese villagers. In 1989 Powell helped lead the US invasion of Panama. As a leading general he then oversaw the slaughter during the 1991 Gulf War.

JOHN NEGROPONTE The man George Bush has just made his ambassador to the United Nations. Negroponte was ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s, and was a central organiser of the state death squads unleashed against trade unionists and the democratic opposition. Negroponte had earlier been the officer in charge of Vietnam in the National Security Council between 1971 and 1973.

RICHARD ARMITAGE The US Deputy Secretary of State worked with Oliver North, a key figure in aiding the right wing Contra terrorists in Nicaragua during the 1980s. According to one account, 'His critics had alleged in the past that he was the author of the idea of using heroin to weaken the fighting capability of the Communists in Indo-china and then in Afghanistan.'

PAUL WOLFOWITZ Bush's deputy defence secretary was a key policy-maker under US president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. He summed up his philosophy by saying, 'We must destroy states.'

ELLIOT ABRAMS A 'human rights specialist' for Bush's National Security Council. He was Under-Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, and was a principal organiser of the Contra terror.

Why they pick on Afghanistan

THE US government has been venting its fury on Afghanistan. It claims the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which the US itself helped bring to power, is harbouring Osama Bin Laden. Before producing any evidence at all, the US blamed the attacks on Bin Laden, and was prepared to bomb Afghanistan and murder innocent civilians.

Former head of MI5 Stella Rimington admitted about the Lockerbie disaster in 1988, 'In such a fevered atmosphere it is easy to jump to conclusions, and we found that our early assessments turned out to be incorrect.' The fact is there are hundreds of people in radical groups across the Middle East who hate the US.

Even Tony Blair admitted there are 34 countries where there are such groups. The US is picking on Afghanistan because it is an easy target. It is a country which is desperately poor, and which has been wrecked by poverty and war created by the Russian and US governments. The US is now trying to demonise Afghanistan and its people in order to justify unleashing unspeakable horror on those who have already suffered at the hands of the big powers.

Blair's death fair goes on

WHILE TONY Blair preached about the 'evil' of those who attacked New York and Washington, his government continued last week to play host to Europe's biggest arms fair.

The Ministry of Defence sponsored an arms fair in east London, where some of the biggest arms firms and repressive governments continued to trade in weapons of death. Neither these merchants of death nor Blair's government saw any reason to stop the fair in the wake of last week's horror in New York. The Independent on Sunday reported, 'Wednesday's visitors were just as busy, if not more so, than those on Tuesday.

'Men in pinstripes talked energetically and laughed as business topics were discussed. Military officials, meanwhile, looked as if they were heading for a parade, strutting around in uniform with gold epaulettes and medals on display. For some, it was as if nothing had happened across the Atlantic. 'I didn't see any negative effect,' said one delegate.'

One ex-RAF man running a stall at the arms fair said, 'Some will happily sell anything to anyone... They are the type of people you would expect to sell to terrorists.'